Pub Classics - A Roast to Boast about

Sunday just wouldn't be Sunday without a roast on the menu. Richard Fox shares his tips on tweaking the dishes to perfection.

Le Roast Beef may well be a derogatory term for us "Anglais" when applied by our friends across the Channel, but what the hell do they know? Clearly not the joys of a succulent, prime fore-rib of beef with crunchy-topped, beer infused

Yorkshires, roasted local vegetables and lashings of caramelised onion gravy, lovingly tended and reduced from a

home-made beef stock. So there!

Thing is, you can hardly blame them for their gastro-piety. Try convincing a busload of UN visitors that the English breakfast is one of the world's great national dishes down at your "seven items for 99p" supermarket servery. It may do the job as a post-party hangover cure, but it's not going to cause a stir in the international gastro stakes. Try again with perfectly cooked and seasoned free-range eggs, slices

of free-range Gloucester Old Spot bacon, similar sausage, artisan black pudding and field mushrooms sautéed to perfection in clarified butter and it's a different story.

It seems the French have only experienced the cheap breakfast version of "Le Roast Beef" - ie, slices of beef that would be better served by the cobbler, insipid roasties and tinned carrots. One can hardly blame them for their cynicism. But, as we know, the proof is in the pudding and

that's as good a place to start as any.

A good Yorkshire pudding - well-risen, crusty top, big flavour - can be reputation building for your whole menu. Folks love 'em, so it's well worth perfecting your own

recipe. Personally, I go for a ratio of 2/3 pint whole milk, 1/3 pint of quality Yorkshire bitter, such as Black Sheep, 8oz flour and five eggs and a good pinch of salt. I'll heat

the tray in a 220°C/425°F/gas mark 7 oven before adding the oil, return it to the oven to reach almost smoking point and only then add the batter, which will have rested for at least half an hour. One final tip given to me by Dave Hunter - provider of the finest roast dinners at the Coach & Horses

in Harrogate - is fill those tinnies up to the brim with batter - it really aids the rising. Obviously it's impossible to bake Yorkshire Puddings to order, so the ideal

scenario is to bake them as close to service as possible, then keep them in a warm place, returning them to the oven for five minutes or so when orders come through.

As far as roast potatoes go, we're looking for a golden, crunchy outer shell that gives way to a soft, creamy textured interior. Starting with the raw ingredient, you

need quite a floury potato - Maris Piper is a good choice. A good blanching in well salted water, until they start to soften on the outside, should be followed by proper draining to get rid of all residual moisture. Then, with the lid firmly held, whizz them around in the pan for a few seconds to rough up the edges. This really helps get a good crispy exterior. They should then be transferred to a pre-heated roasting tray, dotted with butter and finally, seasoned

with sea salt to prepare them for a good roasting. I apologise if there's an element of "teaching grandmother to suck eggs" here, but it's the attention to detail, the little extras, that make such a huge difference and really lift things from good to great.

Having got that out of the way, we can move swiftly on to the star of the show: the joint. And I'm not talking about postservice relaxation here! Whether it's topside, sirloin or a huge fore-rib on the bone, provenance is everything. It's well worth sourcing a good local butcher who hangs

his own meat (we're looking at two to three weeks minimum here for best results). If you're lucky, he may already be

a customer and therefore a great walking advert for your Sunday offering. While the roast beef may well be the traditional joint, pork, lamb and chicken can give a great

choice and allow for a full roast menu without having to offer anything else (other than a vegetarian option, which I

shall leave to you).

I recently cooked a slow-roast belly on the bone and it was quite simply one of the most sublime roast dishes I've ever had the pleasure of eating. The recipe, given to me by top London chef Gordon Gellately, had a pounded mixture of rosemary, sea salt, garlic and black pepper liberally rubbed

into the scored skin. Put in a roasting tin with a mirepoix of veg, a tin of chopped tomatoes, some water and beer to come about ??? of the way up the meat and then roasted at 160°C/325°F/gas mark 3 for four hours, it was a masterclass in the benefits of slow-cooking. Once the meat has rested

and the juices meld with the cooking liquor, you've got an instant sauce. The belly can be sliced and heated through for service with a little sauce to retain moisture.

On the chicken front, try poussin, which can be roasted to order, thereby overcoming the drying-out problem that can

so easily blight the Sunday roast concept. Cover with butter and lemon juice, season well inside and out and finally, stuff with thyme and garlic - getting hungry yet? With all these main meats, the accompaniments can remain the same, making the prep pretty straightforward.

Finally, as far as service goes, you can plate up individually, or for pre-booked large numbers, why not serve up the whole roast on a wooden board? It'll have fabulous

visual impact and before you know it, you'll just be knocking out whole roasts in a two-hour frenzy of activity, kicking back by 4pm - pint in one hand, Yorkshire in

the other, with a bowl of onion gravy for dipping - there won't be any meat left.